The Black Widow's Substitute Vow

I didn't retreat, nor did I speak. I simply watched her, as if studying a masterpiece of cold fury.

My composure enraged her. "You're not afraid of me?"

To her, a pawn sent for slaughter had no right to look so composed. My calm was a silent provocation.

Then, I heard the soft whisper of the cashmere blanket sliding to the floor.

She gripped the armrests of the wheelchair, her body tensing. Then, with a groan of sheer effort, she surged to her feet.

The frail, sickly facade she wore was torn away by her own hands.

Faced with her imposing figure, I felt a suffocating pressure.

As she strode toward me, I instinctively took a step back.

"Who gave you the nerve to look at me like that?"

Before the words faded, her hand shot out like a viper and clamped around my throat.

The air was cut off, my face flushing. I was forced to crane my neck, meeting her murderous eyes.

"What new game is Carmela playing this time?" she snarled, her warm breath ghosting across my face.

The agony of suffocation was blinding, but I knew this was my only chance. Begging would only earn me more of her contempt.

With all my strength, I squeezed out a few broken words. "Donna Seraphina… your legs… they healed… six months ago… didn't they?"

The moment the words left my lips, the hand on my throat froze.

The fury in her eyes dissolved, first into shock, then into a colder, more dangerous stillness.

"Who the hell are you?" she demanded.

She didn't let go. Her grip tightened. My vision began to swim in black spots.

But I knew I’d made the right gamble.

A moment later, she shoved me back.

I collapsed against the doorframe, coughing violently and gasping for air like a drowning man surfacing.

Seraphina sank back into her wheelchair. For a moment, the woman who had stood before me seemed like a phantom.

She was still staring at me, but the raw killing intent had been replaced by suspicion and a sharp curiosity.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"I know a lot more than that," I rasped, my throat raw.

I slowly pushed myself up, looking her straight in the eye.

"I know you're faking your disability to lull your true enemy into a false sense of security. And I know that enemy is Carmela. The woman who sent me to you."